Judgement

Introduction

5.90In the autumn of 1941 there remained living in Germany, albeit under increasingly restrictive conditions, some 146,000 Jews of which 76,000 or so resided in Berlin. In October 1941, following the invasion of the Soviet Union, which was accompanied by the mass murder of Soviet Jews by Einsatzgruppen, the compulsory deportation of Jews from Berlin to the East and principally to Poland commenced.

5.91At 1.30pm on 30 November 1941 Himmler had a telephone conversation with Heydrich. The relevant part of Himmler's note of that conversation reads:

"Judentransport aus Berlin. (Jew-transport from Berlin.)

Keine liquidierung. (No liquidation.)"

Despite that instruction a trainload of Jews who arrive in Riga that day were massacred on arrival.